Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

OH God. This Ruby trial transcript is as despicable as I expected. It starts with a lot of irrelevant stuff of how various police officers knew Jack Ruby, and how volatile and excitable and emotional and unstable he was. But, it also came out that he had started a relief fund for the wife and children of a fallen Dallas police officer, and he contributed the first $150 himself. And remember that $150 then is the equivalent of over $1000 today. 

But, the first witness with anything relevant to say about the Oswald shooting was Doyle Lane from the Western Union office. The gist of his testimony was to harp on the time that Ruby's money wire was sent, it being 11:15. But, they harped on it as though someone was disputing it, but no one was. Marvin Belli wasn't disputing it. So, why drive that point so hard? It's because it wasn't 11:15 that Ruby was there; it was earlier. And they were exposing what they had done.  

Next, let's look at the testimony of James Leavelle. Repeatedly, he stated that Oswald was handcuffed to himself, and in addition, Oswald was handcuffed to himself, Leavelle. He even stated this, and I am quoting him:

"I actually had two sets of handcuffs on him."

Two sets. That means a total of four cuffs, three of which were supposed on Oswald. But, you only have to look at the Jackson photo to see that that was not the case. 

Were all these people stupid????? It is plain as day that Oswald was not wearing three handcuffs, with two on one wrist. There is no handcuff at all on his left wrist in this picture. 

Leavelle went on to say that when he first saw Ruby that he had a pistol in his hand, and he was raising it up in preparation to shoot.

None of that is true. The shooter did not raise the pistol up. And Leavelle was looking the other way as the shooter came in.

Leavelle wasn't even looking in "Ruby's" direction. So, how could he see a pistol? And if he did see a pistol, why would Leavelle be doing what we see him doing here, which is nothing? This whole image is ridiculous. The idea that "Ruby" could move in and get that far along without Leavelle, Oswald, or Graves being aware of him is ridiculous. Not one of them picked up on him? Not one of them even glanced in his direction? 

Wade: All right. After the pistol came into your view, what, if anything, did you do?

Leavelle: I reached to try to catch the man by the shoulder, and I did succeed in catching by his left shoulder.

All of that is complete bull shit. Leavelle did no such thing. We hav multiple angles of it from multiple films, and he never made any such move. 

Jesus H. Christ. Why didn't these people try to confirm what he was claiming by looking at the God-damn films? Holy Mother of God.

Wade: All right. How many steps did the man take after you first saw the pistol?

Leavelle: It seems to me that he took two quick steps. 

Wade: And did he proceed to shoot him?

Leavelle: Yes, he did.

Wade: And how did Oswald react?

Leavelle: He grunted and hollered and said "Oh" and slumped to the floor.

Cinque: That is not accurate. From watching the films, we know that Oswald first cringed forward like he was going to collapse, but then he veered back and went up on his toes.

Do you, or do you not see that Oswald was up on his toes like a ballet dancer? And this was supposedly after having his aorta and vena cava blasted out. 

Wade: Were you still handcuffed to Oswald when he slumped to the floor?

Leavelle: Yes, I was.

Wade: And at the time he slumped to the floor, did you have your hand on the shoulder of the man who shot him?

Leavelle: Yes, I did.

Cinque: How could Wade have asked that question? Based on what? Since there is no film or photo of Leavelle with his hand on the shoulder of the shooter, where did it come from? Why did Wade assume it? 

Wade: What are the facts as to whether you were pulled down to the floor by the weight of Oswald?

Leavelle: Yes, I was, since my hand was cuffed to his.

Wade: And what ensued:

Leavelle: I saw that Mr. Graves was trying to wrestle the gun out of his hand. My eyes were on the gun at that point.

Wade: And what can you state as to whether there was an attempt to fire a second shot?

Leavelle: The right hand was still contracting on the gun as though he was trying to fire another shot. I had swung Oswald behind me, so I was between this man and Oswald.

Cinque: All of that is complete, total, utter bull shit. There is no evidence that the shooter tried to fire again. And Leavelle never swung Oswald anywhere.

Leavelle: Once I saw that Officer Graves had control of the gun, I turned my attention back to Oswald, and with the assistance of another officer, I picked him up and carried him back into the jail office.

Cinque: Again, at this point, I want to emphasis the impossibility of picking someone up and carrying him while handcuffed to him. If Leavelle's left hand was cuffed to Oswald's right, it means that his left wrist had to be juxtaposed to Oswald's right wrist at all times. Therefore, how could he pick Oswald up? Look at this image:

That is actually Jim Leavelle picked the Oswald proxy up in the 1978 movie for television. So, where is Leavelle's left wrist? It is underneath Oswald's right shoulder, supporting it, bearing the weight of it. But, how could Oswald's right wrist also be under there? And since, according to Leavelle, Oswald's hands were also cuffed to each other, it means that his left wrist had to be under there too. Are you beginning to see how ridiculous this whole claim is. It's obvious that Leavelle was lying. It's certain that he was lying.

Then, it moved on to State Exhibit #8, purported to be a photograph of the shooting. I presume that it was the Robert Jackson photo. So far, I have not been able to find any images of the trial exhibits from the Jack Ruby trial. But, here is what was said about Exhibit 8:

Leavelle: This is the actual shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Wade: And here is State Exhibit #9. What does it show?

Leavelle: That is the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald but a few seconds before or one second before.

Cinque: That, I presume, was the Jack Beers photo, and according to Officialdom, it was taken .3 second before the gun blast.

Then, they went back to Exhibit 8, the Jackson photo, and Wade had Leavelle identify the various figures: himself, Oswald, Graves, Pappas, and the man holding the cigar and reaching out with the other, whom Leavelle identified as "Officer Harris". His name was Harrison. 

Wade: What did you do when you got into the jail office?

Leavelle: I produced my handcuff key and had the other officer take both sets of handcuffs off of us.

Cinque: Again, there was only one set of handcuffs, and there is no handcuff on Oswald's left wrist in the Jackson photo.

Next Leavelle claims that as he was putting the handcuffs back on his belt that he noticed Jack Ruby over by the elevator with some officers who were taking him up to the 5th floor. And he claimed to hear something that Ruby said. At that point, Ruby's attorneys objected to his revealing what he heard, but the judge overruled it. There was quite a lot of fuss about this. But finally, Leavelle got to say it, and what he said is that Ruby said:

"I hope the son of a bitch dies."

But, we have an image of Ruby, the real Jack Ruby, from that time, so look at him. 

So that supposedly is when Ruby was brought in from the garage, but it's impossible since Ruby was wearing a jacket. And here he is at the elevator:

And now, lo and behold, the jacket is back on Ruby. They are getting into the elevator there. But, you can see that Ruby is looking down; he looks totally and completely docile and subdued. Does he look like someone flaunting an attitude, as in, "I hope the son of a bitch dies" ????? How in walking 20 feet to the elevator did Ruby go from no jacket to jacket? 

Regarding the bullet, Leavelle stated that after Oswald had expired, the nurse brought him the bullet that was extracted from Oswald. But years later, he began embellishing the story, claiming that he went into the operating room before they got started on Oswald and demanded that the surgeon excise the bullet, which was under the skin, and give it to him.  At the trial, Leavelle denied going into the operating room.

Now, there was actually some interesting cross-examination between Belli and Leavelle. Belli challenged Leavelle on claiming to have seen the pistol in advance. He wondered why, after seeing the pistol, Leavelle would look away again. Leavelle's response was that he could still see it through the corner of his eye. That, of course, makes no sense. Obviously, if he had seen a gun, he would have not looked away from it. 

What came next was the testimony of Dr. Earl Rose, the coroner. To be continued.